'Half-Life's Creators Released A Rad, New Game Out Of Nowhere

Gamers are no strangers to surprises; too bad these surprises are usually about finding out that the game that they'd preordered after having been hyped about for years borders on unplayable. However, a type of surprise they're not used to is games that are actually fun coming out of the blue, which is what Valve just made happen with Aperture Desk Job, a new bite-sized game set in the world of Portal (and Half-Life, yes).

Aperture Desk Job is about working at a desk, sure, but fear not, for it's actually not about … uh, whatever it was that people used to do in offices.

At first glance, I wasn't sure whether they were just making fun of fans desperate for more Valve games. Either way, the joke is on them – we'll take any Portal-adjacent stuff they throw at us. We just hope the toilets aren't a metaphor for the new Steam Deck because the game is meant to teach players how to interact with it. It does so by having J K Simmons return to the role of Cave Johnson from Portal 2 to tell players what to do and share some teasing information on possible sequels lore regarding that world.

Another cool thing about the toilet simulator is how unlike Half-Life Alyx, which is a VR-only title, we can play it on PC and for free. Yeah, it still isn't Half-Life 3, the most anticipated game of all time, but it's still great to see Valve is still making games. While I feel like the fact that Valve's not (intentionally) subjecting me to levels of hype that will only hurt me by the time of release is already worthy of praise, I'm also very happy that this is just an appetizer for a slew of bigger games that Valve just announced they have been working on. You know that can only mean one thing …

Top Image: Valve